The day started off early with us up at 6:30 as we wanted to leave on high tide. We had both slept well but did get up a couple of times to check our lines with the rising tide. Manasquan Inlet gets a 5 foot tide. We were underway by 7:00 with our buddy boat Flock of Seagulls right behind us.
It is an dark overcast day but is forecasted to clear later in the day. We take turns on the helm, I should really say we take turns on watch as Jim our auto pilot did all the driving. We get the main up right away and then the geno. But after about 2 hours we have to take in the geno due to the wind moving more unto the nose. Dawson spots dolphins on two occasion but only for a brief glimpse, Julie comes on deck each time but on both occasion she does not see them, she is starting to suspect they are not out there.
The trip passes quickly, with Julie spending some time looking into coarse to take to support her education leave. Dawson spend the time looking for dolphins and watching the AIS for the boat traffic. For anyone planning to go cruising we would consider the AIS really nice to have almost a must have. If you do get one we would strongly recommend the transponder not just the receiver. It has come in handy a number of times.
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| Black skimmers |
Around 16:30 we are off of Atlantic City with a good view of the casinos along the boardwalk. The entrance to Atlantic City (Abescon Inlet) is nice and wide. We have decided to anchor in a small bay on the north side of the inlet, it was mentioned in the Skipper Bob Guidebook Our time is good as the tide has just started to flood. We enter the channel into the bay which is about 40 feet wide, Dawson is on bow watch but it is impossible to gauge depth with the water colour. Dawson does spot a new bird (Black Skimmer) so the day is now excellent. The bird was quite easy to identify as it skims the water trailing it lower beak in the water, kind of cool to watch. The lowest we see on the depth finder was 6.6'. We anchor beside a C&C on a mooring ball in about 12' of water and the anchor set immediately. We clean up a bit and ensure the anchor is secure and head into the Golden Nugget marine around 18:00. Flock of Seagulls is tied up there so we use their slips as our dingy dock. Scott and Suzie are just cleaning up so we head into the casino for a look around and will meet them later for a beer.
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| Scott and Suzie off of Flock of Seagulls |
We drop our mail off at the front desk and head over to the Chart House for happy hour. Scott and Suzie join us for a drink and some appetizers. We then head into the casino, none of us are casino people so we drop $1.48 on the slots and call it a night. (Julie actually doubled her $10 but Dawson blew his $10 in 5 minutes). The ride back to the boat is interesting being dark with a current running in the inlet but we make it back safe and dry. Three other boats are now in the bay with us. The wind has picked up substantial and is now blowing over 15 knots, but this is a nice secure anchorage so off to bed we go.
Cheers
Dawson and Julie
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